Sprint taps ItsOn for virtualized PCC

Sprint may be in the midst of replacing its network infrastructure and a possible acquisition attempt of smaller rival T-Mobile US, but that is not stopping the nation’s No. 3 carrier from looking to bolster service innovations. The carrier today announced a deal to use ItsOn’s Smart Services Platform to allow for the deployment of new network and mobile services.
The multi-year agreement calls for Sprint to tap into the ItsOn software-as-as-service cloud platform to “design and implement granular service policy control” for data, messaging and voice services. The platform will be integrated into Sprint’s current network architecture, with the ItsOn device software embedded into all new Sprint smartphones running Google’s Android operating system. The integration will consist of the platform overlaying Sprint’s existing network infrastructure using a centralized management interface.
The carrier said the move will allow it to virtualize select service control capabilities, which should speed up deployment time.
“The ItsOn solution provides an end-to-end mobile network policy design, deployment and management platform with intelligent and granular control of mobile network communications,” said David Owens, SVP of product development at Sprint, in a statement. “While other mobile operators stay with traditional solutions that require years to deploy new types of services, Sprint will reduce our deployment cycles down to a few weeks by virtualizing multiple service control capabilities with the ItsOn platform.”
At last week’s TM Forum Live event in Nice, France, Farid Feisullin, senior network architect at Sprint’s CTO Group, acknowledged the growing influence virtualization was having across the carrier’s operations.
“The technology is still in the early phases,” Feisullin said. “NFV is going to happen, but happen in phases over time. … In five year everything in Sprint’s network will be virtualized to an extent.”
For ItsOn, the deal seems to validate the recent launch of its Smart Services Platform. RCR Wireless News recently spoke with ItsOn CEO and founder Greg Raleigh, who talked about the growing role virtualization is having in terms of policy control and charging.
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